It was bound to happen, they've been at it for decades in some form or other starting with cruise control in the late 70's. The electronic age has speeded it up and made it possible. Would I trust it? .... Maybe not just yet.

When your road comes to an end ...... you need a HILUX!.

Life is like a jar of Jalapeño peppers ... what you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.Don't take life too seriously ..... no-one gets out alive.It's not about waiting for storms to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.And be yourself ..... everyone else is taken!

Saw an article earlier this week about the insurance implications of these new systems.

Some wide ranging potential implications !!

On the one end there are liability issues - "who" causes the accident, and where does the liability stop ??

But the tests of over some 2,5 million killometers have had very FEW accidents, to the point where the article suggested that insurance claims would drastically DECREASE .... causing all kinds of other ripples in the industry.

And probably with good reason, Pieter. Can you imagine the liability if any of the electronic gadgetry fails!

But then I suppose that they can build in a backup that takes over and warns the user that the primary unit failed and needs to be replaced / repaired. That way liability can be passed to the user unless both units fail at the same time, which is unlikely but not impossible.

When your road comes to an end ...... you need a HILUX!.

Life is like a jar of Jalapeño peppers ... what you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.Don't take life too seriously ..... no-one gets out alive.It's not about waiting for storms to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.And be yourself ..... everyone else is taken!

Mud Dog wrote:And probably with good reason, Pieter. Can you imagine the liability if any of the electronic gadgetry fails!

But then I suppose that they can build in a backup that takes over and warns the user that the primary unit failed and needs to be replaced / repaired. That way liability can be passed to the user unless both units fail at the same time, which is unlikely but not impossible.

but the user would have to proove both fialed at the same time ... IF he survives for the re-boot ....

Life is like a jar of Jalapeño peppers ... what you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.Don't take life too seriously ..... no-one gets out alive.It's not about waiting for storms to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.And be yourself ..... everyone else is taken!

I have no doubt it will become a reality in time. Better still will be that if the vehicle is stolen or hijacked that it locks everyone in the car, locks everyone out of the controls and drives to the nearest police station, sounding an alarm when it gets there.

When your road comes to an end ...... you need a HILUX!.

Life is like a jar of Jalapeño peppers ... what you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.Don't take life too seriously ..... no-one gets out alive.It's not about waiting for storms to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.And be yourself ..... everyone else is taken!

It was a tragic milestone: last May, Joshua Brown, “a friend to Tesla and the broader EV community,” became the first person to die in a crash that occurred while his Model S was in Autopilot mode.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration (NHTSA) made a full investigation into the circumstances of the accident, and has now announced its findings. The agency “did not identify any defects in the design or performance” of Autopilot, or “any incidents in which the systems did not perform as designed.” It also noted that the frequency of crashes involving Tesla vehicles declined by about 40 percent after the company introduced Autopilot.

NHTSA placed responsibility for the accident primarily on the driver. According to the report, Brown did not apply the brakes, and his last action was to set the cruise control at 74 miles per hour, less than two minutes before the crash.

The agency said the truck that Brown collided with should have been visible to him for at least seven seconds before impact. He “took no braking, steering or other actions to avoid the collision.”......

320 km/h, no driver: Roborace reveals the Robocar
With testing underway for the hotly-anticipated 2017 F1 season, you could be forgiven for forgetting about Roborace, the self-driving race series supporting Formula E. After a long gestation period, the as-yet unproven competition has finally revealed the car that teams will be programming, and it looks absolutely wild.

Designed by Daniel Simon, the automotive futurist behind the light cycles in Tron Legacy, the Robocar is a seriously sophisticated beast. Hidden within its dog-bone-shaped body are four 300-kW (402 hp) electric motors, enough to propel the carbon fiber-heavy (and therefore light) body to over 320 km/h (199 mph). It weighs just 975 kg (2,150 lb) and measures up at 4.8 meters (15.7 ft) long and 2 meters (6.6 ft) wide.

With no driver behind the wheel, there are plenty of sensors around the cars to stop them (hopefully) from bashing into each other. There are five LiDar, two radar, 18 ultrasonic and two optical speed sensors on the outside of the car, along with six cameras and a GNSS module. The whole array is powered by a Nvidia Drive PX2 brain, capable of dealing with up to 24 trillion AI operations every second. Each team will program the car with its own algorithm, making software the crucial differentiator in Roboraces.

Imposing appearance and some interesting stats. Perhaps a long overdue platform to test and refine the whole auto-drive concept while not posing an immediate threat to human life.

When your road comes to an end ...... you need a HILUX!.

Life is like a jar of Jalapeño peppers ... what you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.Don't take life too seriously ..... no-one gets out alive.It's not about waiting for storms to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.And be yourself ..... everyone else is taken!